Elizabeth+O'Donnell

On March 9, 1914, 34-year-old homemaker Elizabeth O'Donnell died in the Chicago office of Dr. Alvin C. Hirster, who had performed an abortion on there there that day. Hirster was held without bail by the Coroner, and was indicted on March 15, but the case never went to trial.

Cook County records indicate that Elizabeth was a German immigrant, daughter of Henry Wock.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see __[|Abortion Deaths 1910-1919] __.

 or more on pre-legalization abortion, see __[|The Bad Old Days of Abortion] __

Sources:
 * Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
 * Untitled snippet, The (Chicago) Day Book, March 10, 1924

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